2 papers Art history visual analysis (5-7 pages)

unit3______________french_expressionism1.ppt

ART HISTORY 132

Fauvism

(French Expressionism)

Fauvism
(c. 1904-07)

principal artists: Matisse, Derain, Vlaminck, Dufy
definition: “the wild beasts”
pejorative label coined by critic Louis Vauxcelles
anything but an opponent
general tone far from unfavorable; emphasized his close association w/ artists
demise: Cezanne retrospective 1907 presented at Salon d’Automne changed emphasis to concern w/ form over color
context: Anarchism
definition: political theory that aims to create a society w/out political, economic or social hierarchies
aim: to oppose government & capitalism
methodology: critiques current society, while at same time offers vision of potential new society
Fauves:
purely artistic radicalism
subject matter does not approach urban & labor issues
color as “sticks of dynamite” (Derain)

Henri Matisse
(1869-1954)

training:
student of Redon
closely studied work of Manet and Cezanne
bought a small Cézanne Bathers in 1899
became interested in Divisionism (c. 1904)
became friends w/ Signac & painted w/ him @ St. Tropez
role: leader of Fauves (“The Wild Beasts”)
tendency: Romantic tradition
aim: expressiveness of color
motto:
art as being like “a good armchair”
“Instinct … thwarted just as one prunes the branches of a tree so that it will grow better”

Matisse

influence of Signac:
subject: pastoral & classical landscapes (c. 1890s)
in decades before 1880, avant-garde painters rarely depicted France’s southern shore
due, in part, to cultural affiliation between southern France and academic classicism
linked w/ cultural and political conservatism
represent anarchist ideal of natural order and harmony that would be found in golden age to come
radicalizes seemingly innocuous depictions
Matisse’s Luxe, calm et volupte (1904-05)
title inspired by Baudelaire’s “L’invitation al Voyage”
dreamy idyll of languorous nudes
far less specified by time, place or politics
“mixed” brushwork & completely arbitrary use of color
condemned as a lifeless theory of painting
more belligerent critics recommended Matisse exile himself to “land of the Bushmen,” where he’d surely be “taken for a master”

Matisse

(Left) Matisse’s Fauvist Green Stripe (1905)
vs.
(right) Bank of America advertisement “See How You’ll Look When You Retire” (2014)

Matisse

(Left) Matisse’s Woman in a Hat (1905)
vs.
(right) Matisse’s Red Madras Headdress (1907)

Matisses’s The Joy of Life
(1905-06)

MATISSE’s Fauvist The Joy of Life (1905-06)
vs.
TITIAN’s Venetian Renaissance Bacchannal (c. 1525)

Matisse’s Harmony in Red
(1908)

Matisse’s The Dance
(1909)

Matisse’s The Red Studio
(1911)

Andre Derain
(1880-1954)

born at Chatou
artists’ colony at the gates of Paris
quiet, picturesque spot spared from industrial activity
father was a successful patissier (pastry chef) and town councillor
middle-class education
training:
first lessons in painting in 1895 from old friend of his father’s and of Cézanne’s
Académie Carriere (1898) in Paris, where he met Matisse
June 1900 he met Maurice de Vlaminck, and formed a close friendship with him
rented a disused restaurant in Chatou which they used as a studio
often shocked their neighbors w/ their antics
meanwhile, copying in the Louvre and visiting exhibitions of contemporary art
extremely impressed by Van Gogh retrospective at Bernheim-Jeune Gallery

Derain

1905:
dealer Ambroise Vollard, to whom he had been introduced by Matisse, bought the entire contents of his studio (he did the same with Vlaminck)
exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants (sold four paintings)
then exhibited at the Salon d'Automne w/ Matisse, Vlaminck and others
following success at the Salon d'Automne, Vollard commissioned views of London; returned in 1906

1906:
spent summer painting at L'Estaque (S. FR)
met Picasso; and next year signed a contract w/ Daniel-Henri Kahnweiler, Picasso's dealer
married on strength of his new financial security
went to live in Montmartre, with his wife, Alice

Derain’s Charing Cross Bridge
(1906)

(Left) Derain’s Fauvist Charing Cross Bridge, London (1905-06)
vs.
(right) photographic postcard of River Thames

(Left) Derain’s Charing Cross Bridge, London (1906)
vs.
(right) Monet’s Parliament, Effect of Fog (1904)

IMAGE INDEX

Slide 3: DERAIN, Andre. Portrait of Matisse (1906), Oil on canvas, 21 5/8 x 18 1/8 in.
Slide 5: MATISSE. Green Stripe (Madame Matisse), 1905, Oil and tempera on canvas, 15 7/8 x 12 7/8 in., Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Copenhagen.
Slide 6: (Left) Matisse’s Fauvist Green Stripe (1905); vs. (right) Bank of America advertisement “See How You’ll Look When You Retire” (2014)
Slide 7: MATISSE. Woman with a Hat (1905), Oil on canvas, 32 1/4 x 23 3/4 in., Collection of Mrs. Walter A. Haas, San Francisco.
Slide 8: (Left) MATISSE’s Woman with a Hat (1905); and (right) MATISSE’s The Red Madras Headress (Summer 1907), Oil on canvas, 39 1/8 x 31 3/4 in., Barnes Foundation, Merion, PA.
Slide 9: MATISSE, Henri. The Joy of Life (1905), Oil on canvas, 69 1/8 x 94 7/8 in., Barnes Foundation, Merion, PA.
Slide 10: (Left) MATISSE’s Fauvist The Joy of Life (1905); and (right) TITIAN’s Venetian Renaissance Bacchannal of the Andrians (c. 1520).
Slide 11: MATISSE. Harmony in Red (Spring 1908), Oil on canvas, 70 7/8 x 86 5/8 in., Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia.

IMAGE INDEX

Slide 12: MATISSE, Henri. The Dance (early 1909), Oil on canvas, 8‘ 6 1/2" x 12'9 1/2“ in., Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York.
Slide 13: MATISSE. The Red Studio (1911), Oil on canvas, 71 1/4 x 86 ¼ in., The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York.
Slide 15: VLAMINCK, Maurice de. Portrait of Andre Derain at Collioure, (1905), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Slide 16: DERAIN, Andre. Charing Cross Bridge (1906), oil on canvas, 31 5/8 x 39 1/2 in., John Hay Whitney Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Slide 17: (Left) Derain’s Fauvist Charing Cross Bridge, London (1905-06) vs. (right) photographic postcard of River Thames.
Slide 18: Comparison between (left) DERAIN’s Fauvist Charing Cross Bridge, London (1906); and MONET’S Impressionist Parliament, Effect of Fog (1904), Oil on canvas, 32 1/2 x 36 1/2 in., Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL.

IMAGE INDEX

Slide 21: DERAIN, Andre. The Turning Road, L'Estaque (1906), Oil on canvas, 4’2 1/2 x 6’ 4 1/2 in., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Slide 22: Comparison between (left) DERAIN’s Fauvist The Turning Road, L'Estaque (1906); and (right) MONET’s Impressionist The Red Road near Menton (1884), Oil on canvas, 25 5/8 x 32 in., Private collection.